Flip Flop Flap

Over on the Studio Cutie blog, Susie Lee explains why the lettering for Oh My Goddess Volume 6 took so long, showing several examples of troublesome sound effects and signage. Then down in the comments, Susie and another old-school letterer reminisce on how things were even more challenging when lettering rework had to be done by hand:

I also remember working on stats. I used Pro White to white out the balloons and then draw stuff back in with rapidograph. It'd really blow when the Pro White wasn't completely dry. I'd end up digging a channel through my blob of White and it'd clog the pen. It was a bummer when the pages weren't completely cleaned of chemicals and the glu-stick I'd use wouldn't adhere.

Laying down tone was fun too. I'd get little pieces all over me and it'd show up at the weirdest places. Like in the kitchen.

I hated doing sfx too, but at the time I shrugged and figure that the books wouldn't be the same without them. Nowadays the kids wanna see the kana/kanji and don't mind little subtitles. I have to say, it makes localizing some titles much easier. I hate subtitles as a reader, but as a letterer, it's fine by me!

I find this kind of behind-the-scenes technical talk fascinating, so I'm always interested when Susie provides a peek into her process. And just for fun, I've added scans of what the two scenes discussed looked like in the old Dark Horse collections:

Labels: Dark Horse, Lettering, Oh My Goddess

10:39 PM | |